


A Voice that Soars

by Pun



Category: Mulan (1998)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 21:01:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pun/pseuds/Pun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cri-kee dreams of letting his voice soar just like everyone around him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Voice that Soars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [werekitten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/werekitten/gifts).



The trouble with being the sidekick, well, really the sidekick's sidekick, was that everyone came to Cri-kee with their problems while never realizing that he might have some of his own. Like right now, Mulan had just come running into the room with a tear-streaked face.

"I won't do it!" she shouted over her shoulder before slamming the door.

Cri-kee could tell when she spotted him having a pleasant soak in the bowl of congee that Mulan had abandoned when the messenger arrived. She had lost all interest in her breakfast once the news was delivered that Li Shang's godfather, his father's best friend and a decorated general in his own right, would not consent to their marriage until Mulan had proven that she was a true lady of honor by performing a perfect tea ceremony for him and his wife. "Oh, Cri-kee," she sighed, coming and plucking him out of his warm bowl of porridge and settling him on her palm without the slightest hesitation. "Why can't Shan-yu's godparents understand? I'm not that girl."

Cri-kee inclined an antenna sympathetically. He hopped from Mulan's palm to her shoulder and chirped gently in her ear.

"Even if I perform the tea ceremony for them perfectly, it won't make me into the bride that they want for Li Shang."

Cri-kee chirped some more, and hopped up and down, trying to communicate to Mulan that he understood her unhappiness, hoping against hope that he could forestall what he knew was coming. Again.

"The best I can do is pretend." Her sigh this time was long and dramatic. "I thought those days of pretending were behind me."

Cri-kee hopped back down onto the table and began frantically waving his antennae, crossing and uncrossing them into an X. But sure enough Mulan took a deep breath her chest expanded, and she began to sing:__

"Is this what I battled for?  
Is this why I went to war,  
Only to be reassigned a role I know I cannot play."  
  
She swept her arm wide in a gesture that encompassed the whole room.  
_  
Thought I'd found a man who loves me more for who I am than for some idea of who I'm supposed to be.  
Thought I'd finally found the way to bring my family honor by just my being me.  
Is this what I battled for?  
Is this why I went to war,  
Only to find my happy ending cruelly snatched away."  
_  
Her voice rose to a triumphant crescendo as she sang:  
_  
"When can I cast aside this make-believe and throw away this sham?"  
Then lowered back down to the tone of a wistful lullaby:  
"When is that day when I'll be honored for nothing more and nothing less than who I truly am?  
_  
Cri-kee felt sorry for Mulan, but he thought she should at least stop to think about the unfairness he had to face too. No one seemed realize what it did to him to hear them all expressing themselves in such soaring melody when all that he could do at best was chirp a few harmonies or sway to the beat. No, clearly they had never stopped to consider it, and in her usual inconsiderate manner, once she'd finished her song Mulan had gone running back out of the room saying, "Maybe if my father talks to Li Shang's godfather, maybe he can make him understand!"

As usual she hadn't stopped for even a moment to ask how Cri-kee was feeling, or considered that maybe she was interrupting him. Typical.

Cri-kee went to get back into the bowl of porridge, but when he dipped a foot in, he found that it had gone all cold and congealed. His antennae drooped in disappointment.

"What are you all droopy dog about?" Mushu asked as he burst in through the window.

Cri-kee answered him, but Mushu waved him off.

"You got problems?" He spread his arms and opened his eyes wide in incredulity. "You think _you've_ got problems? Your biggest problem is figuring out where to take your next nap."

Cri-kee stamped both of his left feet at the injustice of this statement. He wanted to set Mushu straight, but he couldn't get a chirp in edgewise.

"Let me tell you, I know a lot more about problems than you do, and my biggest problem is that I cannot get anyone to take me seriously. I'm s'posed to be a real guardian now, but it's all, 'Mushu dust the headstones,' and 'Mushu go find Fa Huan's head.' How am I s'posed to know where he left his nasty ol' head? I tell you it's not sanitary carrying your head around like that." Mushu wagged a claw in Cri-kee's face. "And he's only doing it to get attention. Ancestor Fa Zhang died of two-hundred and twenty-seven stab wounds, but you don't see his ghost bleeding everywhere." Mushu sat down on the edge of the table and rested his chin in his paw. "I want to be treated with the same respect as all the other guardians."

Oh, no. Cri-kee knew this pattern all too well. He chirped frantically at Mushu.

"What?" Mushu asked. "Don't start singing about it?"

Cri-kee chirped again, letting him know that, yes, the one thing he did not want Mushu to do was start singing about his troubles, but in response Mushu just patted him on the head, squashing down Cri-kee's antennae.

"You know, that actually is a great idea! Thanks, man. You're a true friend." Then he stood up and inhaled for what seemed like at least a minute before singing out in a gravely baritone:  
_  
"Done guided this family  
On quest after quest  
I been loyal and brave, but I still get no respect!"  
_  
Cri-kee hopped onto Mushu's snout and wrapped all of his legs around it, trying to clamp his mouth shut, but Mushu dislodged him with a quick flick of the claw which sent Cri-kee flying across the room. He saw stars as he slammed against the far wall. Cri-kee felt a bit dizzy and disoriented as he slid down the wall, but he could still hear Mushu belting out:  
_  
"I got the blues!  
The ancestral guardian no respect blues."  
_  
Mushu's eyes were closed, and he was swaying to the beat. Cri-kee sighed with resignation and began clapping along in time.  
_  
"I've gone off to war  
I've acted real tough  
Helped Mulan save the empire and even that's not enough  
I got the blues!  
The ancestral guardian no respect blues."  
_  
Mushu quit swaying, did a little spin and said, "Oh, yeah."

Cri-kee chirped at him.

"What do you mean, am I done? Of course I'm done! I said, 'oh yeah,' didn't I? You don't know anything about musical composition."

Cri-kee was just about to tell him that that was exactly the problem, and how sick he was of everyone inflicting their soul-searching caterwauling on him when they heard Mulan's mother shout, "Oh you obstinate girl!"

"Come on. Let's go see what's going on." Mushu grabbed Cri-kee and ran into the next room.

"But they are forcing me to be someone I'm not," Mulan complained.

"No, Mulan," Fa Zhou said. He stroked his hand down her hair. "They may wish it, but they cannot force it. Though the fire may be hot, and though the blacksmith may bend the metal into many wondrous shapes, he cannot force iron to be gold or silver into copper."

Fa Zhou rested his cane against the wall and used both hands to smooth down his robe. Cri-kee covered his eyes, but he would have done better to cover his ears. Fa Zhou sang in his grave, deep voice:   
_  
"When you have an iron core,  
Trial by fire gives no fear,"  
_  
Cri-kee emitted a long, low chirp that was really a groan. If only he could sing, too. Then he could express his feelings. He was barely listening to Fa Zhou's song about adversity and inner strength, but then he heard a line that gave him an idea:  
_  
"Even though the inkwell has run dry,  
You have not lost your voice."  
_  
That was it! He hopped over to the writing desk by the window and began to push against the inkpot that was luckily already quite near the edge. Cri-kee's muscles strained against the weight, and only the knowledge that this might finally be his chance to tell the world how he felt gave him the strength to push the pot those extra few inches that sent it crashing to the floor.

Mulan gasped, and Fa Zhou broke off in the middle of a long note he'd been sustaining with a startled croak as all eyes turned toward the writing desk to see what had caused the disturbance.

Cri-kee chirped as loudly as he could and then jumped into the splattered ink and began using his feet to write just like he had when they'd forged the orders from General Li.

"I am sick of all this singing all the time." Fa Zhou read out in a puzzled voice. "You are rude not to consider how it makes me feel to be a mute when others let their voices soar."

"I told you this was one exceptional cricket!" Grandmother Fa crowed, chuckling to herself.

"You waste your gift of poetry and rhyme, on endless inner conflicts that are really quite a bore."

"But Cri-kee, isn't that—didn't you just—" Mulan began, but Cri-kee ignored her and continued writing.

"I have no voice, no power to sing," Mulan took over reading.

"I must stay silent, always wanting more. I'm conscribed to standby listening, with nothing more than a dream of how it would feel to hear my own voice soar."

"But Cri-kee, man, don't you see?" Mushu grabbed him and lifted him up. "You just did it! You are writing a song!"

He hummed a few bars, and then sang ". . .. be a mute when others let their voices soar," on the word "soar" he went up into a falsetto with lots of vibrato that really communicated exactly how Cri-kee felt about it.

"It's true!" Mulan said, smiling and nodding. She began to sing the words she'd just read in her clear, rich voice:  
_  
"I have no voice no power to sing."  
_  
Mulan's mother echoed in harmony:  
_  
"No power to sing."  
_  
Mulan continued:  
_  
"I must stay silent, always wanting more.   
I'm conscribed to standby listening,   
With nothing more than a dream of how it would feel to hear my own voice soar."_

Her voice truly did soar on the final word and more than one family member seemed to be dabbing at their eyes.

"I think perhaps you have achieved your goal, young cricket," Fa Zhou said.

"It's a beautiful song," Mulan agreed.

"Yeah, you did it man!" Mushu congratulated Cri-kee. "Can I get a high five?"

Cri-kee could hardly believe it was true. He let out a trilling chirp of pure joy and slapped his foot against Mushu's extended paw.

Cri-kee knew he was still the smallest one in the room, but his joy and pride made him feel as big as the Great Stone Dragon. Well, as big as the Great Stone Dragon had been before Mushu's little accident reduced him to mostly rubble.

He used the spilt ink to express his happiness and thanks to the family Fa.

"I'll sing for you anytime, Cri-kee," Mulan told him.

"Yeah, me too," Mushu agreed.

"I'll say one thing," Grandmother Fa said, grinning so widely that her eyes crinkled closed, "I sure do know how to pick a lucky cricket!"


End file.
